The education-preschool levy asks $617 million from generous Seattle taxpayers

Mayor Jenny Durkan held a press conference Thursday for the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

Mayor Jenny Durkan held a press conference Thursday for the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

Photo: Sandeep Kaushik

Photo: Sandeep Kaushik

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Mayor Jenny Durkan held a press conference Thursday for the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

Mayor Jenny Durkan held a press conference Thursday for the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

Photo: Sandeep Kaushik

The education-preschool levy asks $617 million from generous Seattle taxpayers

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Sometime soon, and in an election not far away, Seattle's pliant and generous voters urgently need to give our tax-happy City Hall a painful bloody nose.

The political class keeps doubling property tax levies, nearly tripling in the case of the gargantuan (and obscene) $930 million Move Seattle levy of 2015.

They're at it again this year with the city's largest-ever education levy, the $617 million, seven-year Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy, Prop. 1 on your ballot. It combines and doubles two existing levies: The owner of a Seattle home valued at $665,000 would pay $248 a year, up from $136 now.

The political class has perfected a way of low balling the pricetag, usually expressing it in terms of lattes. In the voters' pamphlet, supporters claim "the additional cost for the typical homeowner is only about $9 a month."

Liars!

But . . . The bloody nose may have to wait. City Hall has us over a rail. This levy would nurture good programs, one that has delivered, the other which is struggling to its feet.

It would expand the city's preschool program from 1,500 kids to 2,500 by 2026. It would pay for Mayor Jenny Durkan's Promise program to provide free tuition for public high school grads to attend community college for two years. The levy would provide $4 million in services to homeless youth.

A big chunk of the money would expand the successful Families and Education program -- successful because it lies beyond control of the Seattle Public Schools bureaucracy -- with its before and after school programs, and school based health centers.

Mayor Jenny Durkan gathered the usual phalanx of supporters on Thursday -- I would have given them a cold had I been there -- and made the case for how this would make us a better city and close the city's north-south "opportunity gap.""

"We have to have good quality preschool so kids can get to kindergarten ready to learn," said Her Worship. "Then we have to have programs in our schools that close the opportunity gap, helping to make sure kids graduate, and also pay for things like after-school programs and nurses.

"And we also know that in this market having a high school education isn't enough to take advantage of the fantastic jobs that we are creating right here in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. We have as much or more than 700,000 jobs created in the Seattle region over the next 5 years, but most of those jobs will require some post-high school certificate, training or degree."

In short, taxpayers should pay up for a brighter tomorrow. They should be ready to come through again in February when Seattle Public Schools offers up a $1 billion capital levy.

But Mayor Durkan needs to be put on the spot. She seemed to show mercy for the city's burdened middle class when running for office last year. Asked about doubling levies, she spoke of the only urgent need being expansion of mental health services.

Well, a year later, here we are with another doubling of levies . . . on top of the housing levy, Move Seattle, and the triple tax-whammy of Sound Transit 3.

The League of Women Voters of Seattle King-County flagged the huge 2015 transportation levy with worries that levy piled upon levy was placing too much burden on residents of what has largely been a middle class city.

The League is opposing Prop 1 this year, worried that city taxpayers are being asked to shoulder burdens that properly belong with the state.

"Taxpayers cannot continue to bear the burden of filling funding gaps in our community, the importance of these services notwithstanding," LWVS-KC President Stephanie Cirkovich argued last month.

"Homeowners can expect their taxes to increase by an average of $112 annually under this levy, and they deserve to know how these funds will be spent."

So, there you have both sides.

The inclination here is to put off the bloody nose. But not for long.

A "No" vote is needed to rein in City Hall. It devotes too much time to social engineering and the care and feeding of interest groups. Rejection is a shock needed to force some attention to those who work hard, play by the rules and pay the bills.

If voters grit their teeth this year, they should grasp the opportunity next year to clean house at the Seattle City Council.

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.